Transcript - 56 Silicone Gel Breast Implants 226

Silicone Gel Breast Implant Litigation
PM Magazine
WLS-TV, Ch. 7
Chicago, Illinois
January 31, 1992 4:00 P.M.

00:54 - 03:56

Joel Daly: Asbestos, DES, Dalcon Shield and now silicone gel breast implants. What man has manufactured has come back to haunt him in the form of law suits product liability.

Kenneth B. Moll: I've been getting as many as three to five calls a day from women. J. Daly: A day? K. Moll: Yes, all of them concerned with the implant, the safety of the implants that they've received. 90 to 95 percent of which have adverse reactions to the silicone implants.

J. Daly: Ken Moll is one of only a hand full of attorneys nationwide who has been working exclusively in this specialized field. He presently represents over 10 percent of the 500 women who already have filed lawsuits. Since the FDA ban was announced thousands more have been calling their lawyers asking what they should do absent any adverse symptoms.

K. Moll: That's a tough call, because there is a latency period, by which the women can actually come down with or manifest an adverse reaction to the silicone. In other words, they might not experience reaction right now, but it's just a matter of time or down the road, say some experts that they might see or manifest some type of adverse reaction to the silicone.

J. Daly: Ken, what advice do you have for women who has concerns about these breast implants?

K. Moll: If they're not experiencing problems now keep seeing a doctor, don't rush to have them removed, don't run to a lawyer to file a lawsuit. The women should be aware though that there is a cut off time for them to file a lawsuit. If they discovered this, most states will say that you have two years from the date when they discovered or knew or should have known the cause of action or the injury.

J. Daly: One major misconception, the issue is not whether or not the implant is leaking. According to Moll all implants leak.

K. Moll: The manufacturers will stipulate to that fact. They even classify them as low bleed or high bleed implants. It's not an issue or it's not something we have to prove that the women have silicon in their body. What we have to prove is whether or not this particular woman had an adverse reaction to the silicone.

J. Daly: What would you like the manufacture to do? K. Moll: I'm not necessarily saying that a ban should be had on all silicone breast implants. I'm telling the manufacturers, put in your package inserts that these women might come down with human adjuvant's disease, connect tissue disorder, auto- immune deficiency, sclerodaerna, Sjogren's disease, cancer or death. We don't know how many women are going get it but some might. The choice is yours either the silicone implant or the saline implant.

J. Daly: In two recent implant suits serves a California woman won a $7.3 million verdict and an Alabama women won $5.4 million. Ken Moll says it's only the beginning, in his words were just seeing the tip of the iceberg.